HE spied on families with young children as they got changed in the River Park Leisure Centre.

But Stephen Humphreys wasn’t banking on being spotted as he peered under the cubicle door to watch as the family undressed.

The church goer was chased and briefly detained by a doctor who was with his wife and two-year-old daughter when they were targeted but managed to break free – only to be caught by police and arrested shortly afterwards on September 5, 2014.

It wasn’t the first time the 49-year-old had acted in that way – having previously used a mobile phone to film under or over a cubicle when a mum was changing with her one-year-old daughter on February 6, 2014.

In August that year he struck again, preying on a mother who was there with her 11-year-old son. On both occasions he managed to get away before he could be detained.

Winchester Crown Court heard how Humphreys, of Hinkler Road, Thornhill, carried out all his crimes at the River Park Leisure Centre.

Humphreys admitted one count of voyeurism and asked for two other similar offences to be taken into consideration.

He also admitted eight counts of making indecent images of children, found by police on his home computer.

In total there were 165 indecent images some involving bestiality, said prosecutor Barry McElduff.

He told the court: “The way he has committed crimes has changed. He has moved from the internet, where some sexual offenders seem to think that things are not real, he now goes out to seek people in real life.

"There’s a real risk it could manifest as something more serious.”

Timothy Akers, mitigating, said father-of-five Humphreys had lost his marriage, his home as well as his job and is now unemployed.

The court heard that Humphreys was of previous good character. Mr Akers said: “He received an emotionally stunted upbringing. He attended a Roman Catholic boarding school which left him sexually repressed. Many people attend those schools and come out fully functional human beings. Unfortunately that was not the case with Mr Humphreys.”

Mr Akers said Humphreys married and had five children but the marriage declined and he turned to internet child porn.

“He knew it was illegal but that increased the excitement, recreating adolescent ideas about sex being wrong.

“There wasn’t a desire to seek out children to take indecent images of them in changing rooms.

"It was more the fact there were people in the next cubicle to him taking their clothes off who didn’t know he was looking at them that made him aroused. He is not a predatory paedophile.”

He had stopped looking at child porn in 2013 and since his arrest Humphreys has been having regular psychotherapy, said Mr Akers.

Sentencing, the judge, Mr Recorder William Ashworth, said he was not wholly convinced that Humphreys fully accepted what he had done.

He said: “The reason people do these things to children, terrible awful things, is because people are willing to look at these images and provide a market for them. You participated in that market.

“You haven’t lost anything like those children have lost.”

The judge said he considered jailing Humphreys but he would receive little treatment to address his offending.

He imposed a three-year community order so Humphreys will take part in the three-year sexual offenders programme The judge also imposed sexual harm prevention order limiting his internet freedom and banning him from taking a mobile phone or camera into a leisure centre.

He is also barred from the River Park Leisure Centre.

He also ordered that Humphreys be on the sex offenders register for five years and pay costs of £510.

A spokesman for the city council, which owns the centre, said: “Winchester City Council takes very seriously the personal safety of those using River Park Leisure Centre. We are pleased that this matter has led to a prosecution, which sends a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.”